No.19 OF 650 · APPROVED, NOT BUILT MP: Andrew Bowie (Conservative) Scotland

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine has 211 MW of clean power (almost all onshore wind) approved and still not built: enough to supply a year's electricity to 170,000 homes. When the wires are too full to carry the power, Britain pays wind farms to switch off instead. No wind farm here is paid that way — almost all of it goes to wind farms in Scotland. That cost is shared across every bill in Britain, so households here pay for it too: about £92 a year per household, £3.8m across the constituency's 41,681 homes. There is also 217 MW of wind running here on the local network. If that gets switched off, no national record shows it.

Not visible
here
217 MW of wind is running in this constituency, but it sits on the local network rather than the national grid — so if it is paid to switch off, no national record shows it. That is why this seat has no figure here: not because nothing happens, but because nobody publishes it. The £ figure for this seat is a floor, not a zero.
211 MW
of clean power — almost all onshore wind — approved and still not built, enough to supply a year's electricity to 170,000 homes — 4 times every household in this constituency. Approved at least two years ago; waiting on the grid, not on planning. That is 1.0× the renewable capacity actually running here.
16 projects · 182 MW onshore wind, 29 MW solar · planning database (REPD), July 2026 · how we worked this out
£3.8m
is what the grid gap costs this constituency's 41,681 households in a year between them — £92 each, about 51 days of one home's electricity.
The £92 per household is a national figure — identical in every GB seat. Only the seat total varies, with the number of households · NESO · how we worked this out

The waiting list

4 of 16 waiting projects · years since approval
Cullerlie Solar Farm 13 MW
4.7 YRS
Fetteresso Wind Farm (Mid Hill 3) 42 MW
3.9 YRS
Craigneil Hill 35 MW
3.8 YRS
Glendye Estate 104 MW
2.8 YRS

Every approved, unbuilt project

approved 24+ months ago, still not generating · planning database, July 2026
SiteTechnologyEnough forCapacityApprovedWaiting
Glendye EstateWind Onshore91,000 homes104.0 MW2023-102.8 yrs
Fetteresso Wind Farm (Mid Hill 3)Wind Onshore37,000 homes42.0 MW2022-093.9 yrs
Craigneil HillWind Onshore31,000 homes35.0 MW2022-093.8 yrs
Cullerlie Solar FarmSolar Photovoltaics4,700 homes13.0 MW2021-114.7 yrs
Coast Viners Animal Nutrition, Drumlithie - Solar Array & Battery StorageSolar Photovoltaics3,300 homes9.2 MW2023-023.5 yrs
Bankhead Recycling - Solar Array, Battery Storage & HydrogenSolar Photovoltaics1,100 homes3.0 MW2023-043.3 yrs
Fordoun Sawmill Solar ArraySolar Photovoltaics500 homes1.5 MW2021-055.2 yrs
HydroGlen Project - Glensaugh FarmWind Onshore900 homes1.0 MW2024-042.3 yrs
One Subsea, Badentoy Avenue - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.4 MW2022-123.6 yrs
Ellismoss - Solar ArraySolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.4 MW2024-072.1 yrs
Badentoy Drive, Portlethen - Solar PanelSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.4 MW2022-034.4 yrs
Archer House, Main Road, Blackburn - Solar Pv PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.3 MW2022-083.9 yrs
Blackiemuir - Solar ArraySolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2022-113.7 yrs
Forest Farm Dairy, Glasgoforest - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2022-123.6 yrs
Enterprise Drive - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.2 MW2022-074.1 yrs
Mains Of Haulkerton - Solar PanelsSolar Photovoltaics100 homes0.1 MW2022-064.1 yrs

Plus 3 more approved within the last two years.

Batteries

projects of 10 MW and above · planning database, July 2026 · what batteries do →
SiteSizeStatusWhile discharging
Hill of Fare - Hill of Fare Wind Farm & Battery Storage100 MWcould supply ≈350,000 homes
Meetlaw Farm, Fordoun - Battery Energy Storage System50 MWapproved, not built 2023could supply ≈175,000 homes
Forest Avenue Cottage, Drumlithie - Battery Energy Storage50 MWapproved, not built 2023could supply ≈175,000 homes
Old Schoolhouse, Barras - Battery Energy Storage System50 MWcould supply ≈175,000 homes
Bridgend Farm, Arbuthnott - Battery Energy Storage System50 MWapproved, not built 2025could supply ≈175,000 homes
West Bendings - Battery Storage30 MWapproved, not built 2023could supply ≈105,000 homes

What this page does not show

Smaller wind farms on the local grid are also switched off; national data does not show it, so the £ figure here is a floor, not a zero. Offshore wind is counted nationally, never per seat. The planning database can run a quarter behind reality.

Electricity does not travel from a particular project to particular houses. Everything generated goes into the national grid and everyone draws from that shared pool, so "enough for X homes" is a way of sizing the electricity — not a claim that these homes would be powered by this site. Battery storage is counted separately from generation: it moves power in time rather than making it.

Planning statuses come from the government's planning database (REPD), which records what was decided and when, but not why. Where a project was refused we say so and name the authority; for the reasons, look up the planning reference on that council's own register. How to check any figure on this page →

Read the full method, including everything we cannot see →

What has Andrew Bowie said about the grid in Parliament? Search Hansard →

See the full league table Data (JSON)